I've yet to see you present any such thing. But feel free to begin, any time you like.

(16-06-2014 07:10 PM)Jeremy E Walker Wrote: They are supports for my assertion that the apocrypha is not inspired by God.

Those that would disagree would be responsible for bringing evidence and argumentation to the table for investigation and scrutinizing.

Indeed.

Perhaps you should ask the relevant theological authorities? They have, as it happens, at least as much justification for their beliefs as you do for yours.

(16-06-2014 07:10 PM)Jeremy E Walker Wrote:

(16-06-2014 06:57 PM)cjlr Wrote: There is not a single claim you can make, as a self-professed Christian, that is not disputed by other self-professed Christians.

This is demonstrably false.

But if it were true, so what?

Okay. Demonstrate it.

If it were true (protip: it is), it means that any possible thing you might claim - founded, inevitably, on nothing more than personal subjective experience - is countered by personal subjective experience to the contrary.

(16-06-2014 07:10 PM)Jeremy E Walker Wrote:

(16-06-2014 06:57 PM)cjlr Wrote: Even leaving aside your stunning dishonesty and ignorance, that would leave your personal testimony well short of compelling, given the vanishly small proportion of global Christians who happen to agree with you with anything approaching regularity.

Secondly, I have never argued against the inspiration of the apocrypha on the basis of my personal testimony.

You have never made a single assertion founded on anything but your own woeful, ignorant feels.

(16-06-2014 07:10 PM)Jeremy E Walker Wrote: Thirdly, even if every Christian believed that the apocrypha was inspired except for myself, it does not follow that the apocrypha is inspired.

Indeed it does not.

It means that a great many people have reasons which are, to them, at least as compelling as your reasons are to you.

Thus, from the perspective of one who believes neither, neither is more compelling.

RE: At What Point Did Christians Decide That The Bible Isn't Meant To Be Taken Literally?

(16-06-2014 11:20 PM)evenheathen Wrote:

(16-06-2014 06:30 PM)Jeremy E Walker Wrote: God has made it very clear to us what we must do if we desire to have eternal life.

We must believe in His Son Jesus.

That is clear, concise, and anyone can do it. Thus, this is about as far from jumping through hoops as I can imagine.

Wa wa wa waaaaiiiit a second here. How is that not just stating that we can be saved simply by jumping through the biggest hoop ever imagined?

Or a massive loophole.

It doesn't matter what a rape-apologizing, narcissistic, misogynistic, oblivious, ignorant, asshole you are in life. All you have to do is believe some unsubstantiated bullshit on no evidence whatsoever and all will be forgiven. So I guess god gave us a brain, then demands that we forsake it's use for salvation. Funny how that works...

RE: At What Point Did Christians Decide That The Bible Isn't Meant To Be Taken Literally?

Yeah, that's what I was going for. Loopholes, hoops.....either way it's just a bullshit way of constructing the house of cards with a way of getting from one side to the other without having to knock it down. Once you start actually inspecting the cards, well, you better not try to turn any over or the whole damn thing comes down in a hurry.

But now I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.

RE: At What Point Did Christians Decide That The Bible Isn't Meant To Be Taken Literally?

(16-06-2014 11:34 PM)evenheathen Wrote: Yeah, that's what I was going for. Loopholes, hoops.....either way it's just a bullshit way of constructing the house of cards with a way of getting from one side to the other without having to knock it down. Once you start actually inspecting the cards, well, you better not try to turn any over or the whole damn thing comes down in a hurry.

Not that Wanker noticed this. Nope, he got lucky indeed. So lucky in fact that Wanker was born in the right country, in the right time, to the right parents, to be brought up in the right faith, to get access to the right message handed down from the right god to gain access to the right afterlife. I mean, all things must be coming up roses in Wanker's life, he did get ever so fucking lucky. All those malnourished and starving children in Africa having their eyes eaten slowly by parasites? They just weren't lucky like our boy Wanker here, they just lucked out. How can that happen in light of an all-powerful and loving deity? Couldn't that god intervene to save these people, and demonstrate his power and existence unquestionably, and at the cost of literally nothing to the deity itself? Couldn't it demonstrate it's existence in such a way as to make it's presence known and believe throughout the world, thus guaranteeing salvation for all? Wouldn't an all-powerful and loving deity do at least this much?

But really, who cares? Wanker is getting into heaven (for-realsies), and that's all he cares about.